A reader asks prayer: – for my family, as we struggle to keep our heads above water financially – continued prayers for my mother (suffering from ALS) and my very stressed out father – for me, a sinner, as I look into becoming a Benedictine Oblate. The distance and the financial constraints mean that I can only visit the monastery once every six weeks, and I don’t know how feasible that might be. (An aside here. When next you’re in... Read more

A reader asks prayer: – for my family, as we struggle to keep our heads above water financially – continued prayers for my mother (suffering from ALS) and my very stressed out father – for me, a sinner, as I look into becoming a Benedictine Oblate. The distance and the financial constraints mean that I can only visit the monastery once every six weeks, and I don’t know how feasible that might be. (An aside here. When next you’re in... Read more

Want to Give Drink to the Thirsty? A reader writes: I just wanted to send a message to everyone I know to tell you about a project I am working on that I believe is very important. It’s a website to raise money for a water well to provide safe drinking water for orphaned kids in Uganda. Check it out. Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these…. Read more

I don’t know if you heard about this: the second price at Cannes went to a film called “Of God and Men” (Des hommes et des dieux), which I am looking forward to seeing. Its about the monks of the Cistersian Monastery in Algeria who were martyred. Here is a nice review of it. Have you seen the action packed movie called “Into Great Silence”? I haven’t. I had friends who raved about it, but I never went. I do... Read more

I don’t know if you heard about this: the second price at Cannes went to a film called “Of God and Men” (Des hommes et des dieux), which I am looking forward to seeing. Its about the monks of the Cistersian Monastery in Algeria who were martyred. Here is a nice review of it. Have you seen the action packed movie called “Into Great Silence”? I haven’t. I had friends who raved about it, but I never went. I do... Read more

Here’s the appeal. Also, the Millegan’s child was born recently. Read more

and you’re mine. A chance to explore the Chapel on line, via Java coolness. Read more

warns about getting your information from the movies. Agora is yet another bowdlerization of history a la Dan Brown, Kingdom of Heaven, or the recent Robin Hood. The hopeful thing is that Americans are generally averse to “historical films”, so it’s unlikely it will do well at the box office. Historical films used to do well, but with the dumbification of mass culture over the past 50 years, audiences increasingly prefer to *feel* as though they are intellectually superior without... Read more

In which we continue to look at the Beatitudes. Read more

(and what the use of having your own blog if you can’t obsessively post on the same thing now and then?), I give you Travis Prinzi’s thoughts on the Lost Finale. Another thing I noticed. The denizens of Sideways all find themselves in experiences of love that we would identify with the via affirmativa. Ben, however, finds himself in the via negativa (namely, Desmond pounding the crap out of him). Read more